NATCHEZ — It’s not old and rugged, but Mission Mississippi is hoping its illuminated cross will serve as a light for the state of Mississippi.

The Christian group dedicated to racial and denominational reconciliation lit a six-foot-tall cross Wednesday and sent it on an 82-day, 2,489-mile journey across the state.

The “Mississippi Glowing” celebration will mark Mission Mississippi’s 20-year anniversary and culminate in a statewide celebration in Jackson Oct. 27.

In Mississippi’s infamous past blighted by racism, the light from burning crosses marked the hatred, persecution and fear brought by the Ku Klux Klan and other groups. But Mission Mississippi aims to make a lighted cross a symbol of reconciliation in Mississippi, not division.

“We want to bring about illumination,” Mission Mississippi President Neddie Winters said. “We want to bring about a positive view of the cross. We want the symbol of the lighting of the cross to show that Mississippi is now glowing, not burning.”

Mission Mississippi raised a 20-foot cross in 1993 at Veterans Memorial Stadium, and Winters said he knew then that the road to reconciliation would be a long one.

“We knew in the beginning that it was going to be a marathon, not a sprint,” he said. “We knew we weren’t just going to overcome all of the racial hatred that has been part of our history in one event.”

Twenty years later, Winters said the people he met under that cross, black and white, have become lifelong friends.

“It brought people together that wanted to see something happen, people who said ‘We need a change, so let’s do something,’” he said.

Mission Mississippi is going back to the cross for its anniversary celebration and will have Fellowship of Christian Athletes and college athletes in each county carry the cross to the next county.

“We’re asking people to follow that cross to Christ, firstly, to a personal relationship with Christ, then follow that cross to your community to work with others on goals that will make it better and set aside race and denomination and all other things that typically divide us,” Winters said.

The cross will make a stop in Natchez at 7 p.m. Tuesday on the bluff. Adams County Board of Supervisors President Darryl Grennell and other local officials will welcome the cross and those carrying it.

“I think it’s a great thing that a lit cross will be handed from one county to another throughout this journey,” Grennell said. “We’ve had a history of racial tension over the years, and to go from a burning cross to a glowing cross to say that the state of Mississippi is moving forward is really great.”